We are 15 minutes away from the 3pm trade deadline and things have come to a grinding halt. The only trade that has been announced in the last hour was the one where the New York Islanders picked up a knuckle-dragging defenseman. The Fishsticks acquired Rob Davison from San Jose for a seventh round draft pick Ã¢â‚¬â€œ probably because the NHL doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t go beyond seven rounds any more. The 27-year-old is 6-3/220 and will provide Colton Orr some fodder in a week or so.

You have to love the NHL Network. They have John Ferguson Jr. and Mike Milbury in studio as their Ã¢â‚¬Å“General Manager expertsÃ¢â‚¬Â. What is the matter; Kukla, Fran and Ollie werenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t available? The group was talking about Vancouver needing to bring in offense when someone said what are they going to do trade Roberto Luongo Ã¢â‚¬â€œ who would do that? Milbury laughed it off by saying he had DiPietro in his back pocket. Of course, what he should have said Ã¢â‚¬Å“I had DiPietro in my back pocket and not a clue in my brain!Ã¢â‚¬Â

While the deadline is 3pm, you can expect deals to be announced for a couple of hours after that. Teams have to send confirmation of the trade to the NHL by 3pm and then the NHL reviews the deals to make sure there are no contract or salary cap implications.